Seminars for coaches – secrets of excellence

23 April 2014|Interview

In addition to the sport and cultural programmes for young tournament participants, the 8th Gazprom Neft Cup includes seminars for specialists.

In Minsk Boris Mikhailov and Sergei Babinov ran a joint master class. These two legends of world hockey have between them three Olympic gold medals and 12 World Championships! This doesn’t even include the slightly less prestigious international and Soviet awards. It’s no surprise that dozens of Belarussian coaches came to listen to Boris Petrovich and Sergei Panteleimonovich. The hall was packed.

The seminar was about two hours long. In that time Boris Mikhailov and Sergei Babinov managed not only to share their own experience, but also the answer many questions from the audience on methods in the training process. Of course, there was a special emphasis on working with young hockey players.

“The meeting was very interesting and active,” recounted Boris Mikhailov. “There were a lot of questions, especially around children’s and youth hockey. Sergei and I talked about everything, shared all of our impressions and ideas regarding the specifics of training the next generation. Importantly, we had a nice, informal meeting. From my point of view, the seminar was very informative, and useful to the coaches from Belarus.”

In Omsk the master class was run by doctor of pedagogical science and highest-category coach Vasily Konovalov, who works with teachers from the KHL corporate institute of coach training. Many of those who came to the seminar know Vasily NIkolaevich from the days when they were still hockey players and prepared for their games under his leadership.

Oleg Ugolnikov, coach, Avangard-2001:

"I’ve known Vasily Nikolaevich for a long time. This seminar was being run for the first time, so it was interesting to learn new things. There is a saying: live for a century, learn for a century, so if you’re a coach, it’s always good to learn something new and important for training children.

The seminar was broken into two parts. The first part included evaluating the physical readiness of children of different ages, and the second was focused on older players. The team coaches discussed the best way to set up the training process, depending on preparation systems. In Konovalov’s opinion, the coach’s task is to give the player a chance to realise himself, regardless of the child’s starting level:

“I’m interested in talking to coaches, since I’m a coach. It’s a shame that for various reasons, research often doesn’t make it down to coaches, and all of youth sport loses out because of that. I think that the main aim of my presentation is to present to coaches the latest achievements in science and practice, and the results of my own research. I love watching games with children, they take chances, in battle and in though. Gazprom Neft Cup is a useful and important tournament for the development of youth hockey.”

On Friday, before the Gazprom Neft Cup Super Final, Vladimir Vladimirovich Yurzinov, one of the best-known hockey strategists and honoured coach of the USSR and Russia, will run a seminar for specialists in Omsk.